SEPTEMBER 2011

THE NEW KIDS

ON THE

BLOCK

don’t be stupidkeep it at the track

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About Us 4JDMChicago Feature 5

EUNOS I’m Faster 8Autocross 13

Product of the Month 14

Established three years ago, Shiba Senshuden is a car club that consist of 7 close friends who share the same passion for automobiles, Chicago car culture, and various types of motorsports. We are a Chicago based car club who grew up in the north-west suburbs of Chicago. Shiba Senshuden Magazine is our way of expressing our interest of cars to the public. The Magazine also showcases our perspectives on Chicago culture, racing, and automotive products.

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We had the pleasure of shoot-ing Scott’s 1990 Nissan S13 this past weekend. Although he has owned the car for about four years, the first few years con-sisted of simply scavenging for parts and building the car in his spare time. From a stock single cam/5sp base model, it eventually transformed into the LS1 beast it is today. Considering the majority of the work (including paint) was completed by Scott in his own garage, it’s pretty damn impres-sive he was able to accomplish the majority of the build in only two years.

What really sets this car apart from others are the Weds Kranze LXZ wheels. The fronts are a respectable 18×9.5 -10 offset,

and rears a ridiculous 18×10.5 -26 offset. Not many cars can pull off the hyper chrome finish of the Weds, but this Nissan pulls if off seamlessly.

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Scott has only been driving the car for 2 years now, but is fairly pleased with it’s performance and aesthetics. As a drift car,there are always various nuances and what not that needs to be tweaked. After the last drift event, Scott felt really good about the car and doesn’t think it needs much more work. With the majority of the build complete (see extensive mod list below), future plans for the car in-clude some minor items such as a matching bucket passenger seat, a speedometer, and maybe even a working radio. Be sure to check out this dope S13 at the next drift event, getting rowdy in the city, or simply being the presence that it is at the next meet.

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INTERIOR Bride Vios III bucket seat; Buddy Club sliders;Auto Meter ES Tach; S14 manual seat belts; Remove ALL Nissan wiring for home made lighting harness

EXTERIOR 99+ Nissan Silvia headlamps; Version Select 13.5 20mm front fenders; Version Se-lect “version 1” S15 front bumper; Version:Select “type 5” 180sx side skirtsOrigin “stylish”; 180sx rear bumper; Origin 50mm tatakidashi rear overfenders; “D-max style” fiberglass hood; BMW Daytona Violet Metallic full color change; BMW Cosmos Black Metallic roof

SUSPENSION 5 Lug conversionStance GR+ Pro coilovers; Circuit Sports RUCA/Toe arms/Ten-sion rods;Tein S14 inner/outer tie rods w/ spacers; Nismo Powerbrace Solid aluminum steering column bushing; Solid aluminum rear subframe bushings; Energy suspension poly bushings; No front sway bar

WHEELS/TIRES Weds Kranze LXZ 18×9.5 -10 Front 225/40; Weds Kranze LXZ 18×10.5 -26 Rear 235/40

BRAKES Stock calipersAll steel braided linesHawk pads

ENGINE 2000 5.7L LS1 Engine; Daft Innovations mount kit; PCM/Standalone hot rod har-nessSpeed; tuneSikky power steering lines; True dual 3” exhaust; 2 Flowmaster 40 series muf-flers; Koyo “KA” aluminum radiator; Dual 12” electric puller fans

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In 1989, Mazda introduced a small two-seater roadster, philosophically direct descendant of small British roadsters such as the Triumph Spitfire and the Austin-Healey Sprite. A lightweight, real wheel drive, front engine car with equal front/rear weight distribution, the Mazda Miata hit North American shores. 22 years later, the Mazda Miata still has a large following of car enthusiasts, Chris Basco, being one of them.

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Words by Javier ChaidezPhotos by Christopher Basco

Chris Basco’s, graphic design student from Chicago, Illinois, first car was a 1996 Honda Civic. On November 12, 2009, the Honda Civic was involved in a front-end collision, putting to waste all of his efforts to make the car track ready. Five months later, Mia entered his world. “I had been searching every car forum, automotive magazine and newspaper to fill the void of the late Honda Civic I owned, but I found nothing, until I saw her on a thread on WindyCityMiataClub.com”

On March 12, 2010, the 1995 Montego Blue Mica Mazda Miata was sitting in his garage. Chris explains, “Mia had already come with Eunos (Japanese Name) Road-ster badges, Moss TSI lights and Japanese

side fender turn markers.” Almost as soon as his purchase of the car, Chris bought a hardtop to replace the factory fabric soft-top convertible. He then bought a classic fuel lid cover and a Mazda Miata R package front lip to give it a little more edge, yet still make it have a timeless classic look. Red Renn Metal Tow Hooks were added to the front end and under the rear bumper.

Chris notes that the interior of the car isn’t much to look at, “the only interior change I made was replacing the original steering wheel with a Momo Prototipo wheel and a Dakei hub.”

Underside the hood sits the 1.8L BP-ZE I4 engine produc-ing a mere 128 horsepower. “My engine modifications were light as well since not very much power is needed when auto-crossing. I went with the basic bolt-ons.” Strapped to the engine is a Randall style intake with a K&N air filter. To port out the air he uses Fujitsubo headers closing out to a Borla stainless steel cat-back exhaust. “I love this exhaust.

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It’s not too loud like other cars, but it has a nice deep resonation that sounds off as the engine builds speed.”

Chris’s pride and joy doesn’t come from the exterior looks or the power his car produces, but from the handling it pro-vides. He put a lot of time and thought into the right parts and correct tuning. His car sites on 949Racing 6ul wheels with a 15x8 specification wrapped in 205/50 Kuhmo XS tires. Feeling the road at each corner of the car are FatCat Motorsports Coilovers with a custom 9/6kg spring rates valved to match car weight, including the driver, driv-ing style, and ride height. Added to that is a Tanabe TTB016F Sustec Front Strut Tower Bar, Hardog Ace Roll bar, Jackson Racing Tubular front sway bar and a 11mm OEM rear sway bar.

All his hard work and dedication has payed off. In 2008 he won first place Class Season at the Chicago Volkswagen Orga-nization. He has also placed first six times at Windy City Miata Club events.

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“I have always loved Miata’s. The first Miata I fell in love with was at a local autocross event in 2008. A couple of years later I ended up buying the same exact one I saw.”

INTERIOR Dakei hub; Momo Prototipo wheel; Pioneer head unit

EXTERIOR Moss TSI’s lights; JDM Eunos badging; R ackage front lip; JDM side markers; Renn Metal tow hooks; Classic fuel lid; Factory Hardtop

SUSPENSION Fatat Motorsports Coilovers 9/6kg rates valved to match car weight including the driver, driving style, and ride height; Tanabe TTB016F Sustec Front Strut Tower Bar; Hardog Ace Rollbar; Jackson Racing Tubular Front Sway Bar; 11mm OEM rear sway bar

WHEELS/TIRES Kuhmo xs tires 205/50 all around; 949racing 6UL wheels 15x8 front and rear

BRAKES Napa Blank Rotors; Ultimate Axis Brake Pads

ENGINE Borla Stainless Steel Cat-back Exhaust; Fujitsubo Headers; Protégé valve cover; K&N Filter; Randall style intake

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Autocross is a form of motorsports that empha-sizes safe competition and active participation. An autocross is a timed competition where drivers navigate one at a time through a temporary course marked by traffic cones, rather than racing on a track with multiple other cars, as in road racing or oval racing. Autocross tends to place more empha-sis on car handling and driver skill than on sheer horsepower, and events typically have many classes which allow almost any vehicle, from economy se-dans to purpose-built vehicles, to compete. Speeds are slower in absolute terms when compared to other forms of motorsports, usually not exceeding highway speeds, but the activity level (measured in discrete turns per minute) can be higher than even Formula One due to the large number of elements packed into each course. Autocross courses are typically 40 to 70 seconds in length, with speeds limited to 70 mph for insurance purposes. In addition

to being a national-level motorsport in its own right, autocrossing is a good way to learn skills that trans-fer to road racing, as drivers learn vehicle control and club ethics.

Autocross events are usually held in large paved areas like parking lots or airfields. Typically, new courses are created for each event so drivers must learn a new course each time they compete. Prior to driving, a competitor will walk the course, taking mental notes, and developing a strategy to be re-fined upon subsequent runs. National organizations such as the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and National Auto Sport Association (NASA) sponsor autocross events throughout the United States, and many areas have independent autocross clubs. Au-tomobile manufacturers and their associated clubs (e.g. the BMW Car Club of America) sometimes hold marque autocross events

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The second generation 6UL wheels are low pressure (LP) cast and T6 heat treated. LP casting refers to the alumi-num being forced into the wheel mold under pressure. This pressure elimi-nates the possibility of bubbles and voids in the aluminum casting. It also compacts the aluminum which allows a higher tensile strength to be achieved with the same material. Gravity cast tooling requires larger wall thickness to allow the molten aluminum to flow into all the small features and crevices of the mold during filling. The design ben-efit of the new LP technique is that the engineers can optimize the thickness of each part of the wheel without really needing to allow for material flow. This optimization reduces weight without any decrease in strength.

With a gravity cast wheel, the center hub area is the last part of the mold to be filled by the molten aluminum so it is more prone to unwanted poros-ity or voids. To combat this potential weakness, the hub area is overbuilt to ensure failsafe strength. With the new LP casting, the mold filling and den-sity is the same throughout the wheel structure so the hub area can be further optimized and lightened.

While we kept the same unique 6UL look, the engineers needed to create an entirely new engineering drawing and tooling for the LP casting process. We took this opportunity to reevaluate every single area of the wheel, perform further FEA optimization, strengthened and lightened wherever possible. It takes trained eye and both wheels in hand to spot the differences but there were more than a dozen little tweaks to the Gen II compared to the Gen I.

The end result is a wheel that’s about 5% lighter with nearly twice the fatigue life and substantial gains in strength. The Gen II also end up being a bit stiffer and that’s directly creates more consistent contact patch loading. Few tuners ever think about this but a wheel that’s too soft and flexible will actually deflect under hard cornering loads enough to reduce active camber. Stiff wheels are good.

Gen II’s can be identified by the “ 6UL “ embossed right on the face of the wheel. The center bore on all versions is 67.1mm, which allows the optional use of standard size hub centric rings.

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